Stay in or get out the Janus? The maintenance of multiplex relationships between buyers and sellers

Abstract

Buyers and sellers interact in different ways. They conduct economic transactions but often also engage in social exchanges; they compete to appropriate the value generated throughout the pipeline but often also collaborate in mutual value creation. Increasingly, they show patterns of repeated interaction rather than engaging in single transactions. Most past research investigated interaction modalities within buyer–seller relationships through an ‘or–or’ lens, and considered one modality as prevailing within the relationship at a given moment. In this study, we will develop an ‘and–and’ logic, opening the mainstream view of relationship maintenance to social theories on the structure of economic action and the strategy view of coopetition. We will further examine the implications of dualities and complementarities within buyer–seller relationships in respect of their maintenance over time.